Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, today called on Democrat Andrew Cuomo to join him in opposing Governor Paterson's proposal to have the state pull out of the federal Superfund program.

"Governor Paterson is increasingly erratic," noted Hawkins, "and one has to wonder who is actually running the state. Paterson appears to have declared an all-out war on the environment and yet Cuomo has remained silent as hundreds of millions of dollars from the Environmental Protection Fund are raided, DEC staffing is slashed, DEC Commissioner Grannis is fired for speaking the truth, NYSERDA is messing up implementation of the Green Jobs Green NY program, and now the bizarre suggestion to have the state pull out of Superfund while GE backpedals over removing PCBs from the Hudson." Hawkins said that as Governor he would strengthen the state's Superfund and Brownfield programs to strengthen cleanup standards, increases fees on corporate polluters to eliminate general tax dollars being spent, and speed up cleanups.

"In the 1970s, the US under the prodding of environmental advocates like Raplh Nader was the world leader in cleaning up the environment. That hasn't been true for a long time as corporate interests now dominate both the Democrats and Republicans. Europe and Japan long ago passed the United States in government action to protect the environment. That is why a vote for the Green Party is so critical on Tuesday," added Hawkins.